While he has also had some notable successes on the opposite bank of the River Trent, the Scot was in no mood to reflect on his achievements, only to lament his failures.

His disappointment was not merely rooted in the fact that he had lost his job, but in the fact he had failed to do the job to the standards he desired.

He will view his time at Nottingham Forest as a job unfinished. He is not the sort of man to shout from the rooftops, he will not focus on the triumph of promotion from League One, but on the frustrations and failures that followed.

Calderwood has paid the price for one thing – bad results.

Four wins from 25 Championship matches had an inevitable, unavoidable consequence.

It is not that football has a short memory. It is, in fact, quite the opposite. It is the fact that the cold, clear recollection of life in the third tier remains only too fresh in the mind.

And, while it came at the expense of the man who had helped them escape that footballing wasteland, the hierarchy at the club were not willing to risk allowing it to happen again.

Calderwood helped them achieve one objective, by steering them out of League One. But for the next – avoiding relegation – they will turn to somebody else.

While Warnock made a point of reminding people of his successes, the fact that Calderwood is unlikely to do the same does not mean they are not worthy of recognition.

As he empties his office in the bowels of the Main Stand, he will doubtless run through the same things that everyone who has ever lost their job does.

What went wrong? What could have I have done differently? With the benefit of hindsight, there are numerous areas that can easily be criticised.

A lack of experience in the side is an obvious one, given that Forest have frequently fielded a team with an average age under 23.

And naivety, not just in defence, but across the pitch, has often cost the Reds dear.

There is no questioning their ability. What they have sometimes lacked is knowledge and experience. Forest put their faith in youth and were repaid with the kind of mistakes that come through innocence.

But, at the same time, it is players like Chris Cohen, Kelvin Wilson, Lewis McGugan and Joe Garner who will provide the foundation stone for the future, and they were all players signed by, or brought through the ranks, by Calderwood.

Equally, people will point to tactical failures, to games such as the one against Norwich City a month ago, when Forest not only failed to beat a side reduced to ten men, but also failed to ever find an approach that even made them look capable of doing so.

Last night's result was the straw that broke the camel's back, but Forest's inconsistency had seen the poor creature unsteady on it's feet for some time.

Too often they would follow up promising performances with displays from the opposite end of the spectrum.

Time and again optimism would swell as they set high standards, only for the bubble to burst following insipid displays from the opposite end of the spectrum.

Last night was the prime example, as Doncaster, a side who had never managed to score more than a single goal in a game this season, ran riot at the City Ground.

Calderwood has failed to find the best way to harness the abilities of his squad in the Championship. He had collected most of the pieces required to form a successful side at this level, but he has failed to put them together in the right order.

But, like Warnock at Notts County back in the early 90s, Calderwood is still equipped to have a bright future.

The success he achieved at Forest – and previously at Northampton Town – is unlikely to be his last in football. As a team, Nottingham Forest were at times let down by their lack of experience, but as a manager, perhaps Calderwood was too.

He has paid the price for that. And, in the cold light of day, it was a difficult, but unsurprising decision that had to be made.

And, while his Forest career has not ended on the note he would have liked, his learning curve is likely to continue elsewhere.

For Forest, that is irrelevant; the time for sentiment has passed.

What counts now is not Calderwood's future, but Forest's.

Billy Davies, the ex-Derby manager, is the man believed to have been lined up for the task of steering Forest to survival.

But, for Forest fans, the name on the manager's door would count for little as long as, on the final day of the season, he has done enough to ensure that Forest finish out of the bottom three.

If that happens, then the champagne will be flowing in the manager's office at the City Ground.